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As the frenzy to invest in fledgeling internet businesses continues, and web
companies become the subject of Hollywood movies, yet another Silicon Valley
phenomenon looks set for a lucrative payday.

Twitter, which posted its first 140-character message barely five years ago,
has become a $10 billion (£6.3 billion) play for some of the internet’s
biggest names.

In the past few months, Google and Facebook are understood to have held
discussions to acquire it for between $8 billion and $10 billion. Although
the talks seem to have faltered in their early stages, the estimated price
tag — about 100 times more than